Toward Point Lighthouse

Toward Point Lighthouse is on the southern extremity of the Cowal Peninsula, near the village of Toward, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. There has been a lighthouse here since 1812.

Toward Point Lighthouse

Toward Point Lighthouse
Location	Cowal Peninsula
OS grid	NS1362367226
Coordinates	55°51′37″N 4°58′41″W
Tower
Constructed	1812
Built by	Robert Stevenson
Construction	White circular tower
Height	19 m (62 ft)
Operator	Clyde Port Authority
Heritage	category B listed building
Light
First lit	1812
Focal height	21 m (69 ft)
Range	22 nautical miles
Characteristic	Fl. W 10sec

Toward Point Lighthouse was completed in 1812. It was built by Robert Stevenson (1772–1850) for the Cumbrae Lighthouse Trust.[1] Two lighthouse keepers' houses were added in the later 1800s. A white building on the foreshore housed the foghorn mechanism, originally a steam engine and then diesel engines. The foghorn was taken out of operation in the 1990s.[2] The keeper's cottages were sold in 2012 and are now a private home.[3]

Toward Point marks the extreme south-westerly point of the Highland Boundary Fault as it crosses the Scottish mainland.[4] The Highland Boundary Fault does not run through Toward Point, but about one kilometre to the west it can be located on the Toward shore by the presence of Serpentinite and the sudden change from younger sedimentary rocks to much older metamorphic rocks, notably Psammite.